We have a serious issue here in Key West… I appreciate Anthony J. Yaniz for shining such a bright light on it with his colorful, I’m sure well intentioned post on his Facebook page yesterday…Many people commented in support of finding a way to take care of our fallen people.I suggest that we form a committee of citizens… Much like we did to protect our reefs from being dredged…I don’t have a solution, but I do know that together we are better! This is not about finding a camp out of site to hide them, this is an issue of mental illness, of misfortune, of addictions…I’ll be the first member… Will you please join me?Stephen M. Sunday, Jenny Craig, Craig Cates, Gweko W. Phlocker, etc… (someone please tag Bryan Green we need his generous experience and brain)Let’s create a brand new solution! To me, creating new solutions is what Key West does best!

Stephen Ferrante Hello John, as part of an “experiment” I lived in a homeless shelter twice for a month at a time, in a fairly upscale town in Connecticut. I am always shocked at the belief systems of people who, even though they realize they could end up on the street, turn an ignorant blind eye to the problem. Even worse is when I see hungry children living below the poverty line, in this great Nation of ours that has a surplus of everything. My company is always eager to help people with a hand up, and sometimes a hand out. Bill Clinton said, “It takes a village” and he was right.

Parks Curtis So you took up a bed in a homeless shelter a vet might have actually needed as an ” experiment ” and call others ignorant and assume this and that … I lived under bridges and in homeless shelters in texas and california and almost froze to death on the ong island rail road I am consistently seeing people make assumptions and shooting their mouth of which is not helpful . In the end when I was being pursued by the federal fugitive task force I did not use ID or get social services anymore and was forced to work in jobs that were dangerous like security with hells angels one of the night clubs I was at had a shoot out right in the middle of the building and I was trying to lower my girlfreind out a second story window to safety … Point is that drugs and alcohol are making it unsafe and we are supportive of the drug and alcohol lifestyle not only of homeless but our community key west is tolerant of drug and alcohol a use to a fault it is not my imagination mans head crushed by rock at boat ramp ,woman attacked by hammer both by homeless crack head tried to break into my shop , I chased man down the street that punched a woman infront of my shop and later helped ID him to police when he was later naked at the boat ramp . I know key west things drugs and alcohol are cute but even pot really harms people’s brains and results in alot of problems but is down played by meme midis . Most people don’t even realize that the only drug canibal was on in Miami was pot . Completely excused even though all scientific evidence verifies dangers to mental health we must face reality as it is not the so called reality that fits our agendas and bad habits , if we do that we can be of ACTUAL and REAL service to our community and children , children growing up in this culture are the greatest victims

Parks Curtis As a bouncer on duval I often saw people usually drunk on vacation give homeless money and smiling as they walked of being conned or whatever thinking they had contributed to some worthy charity and I would always point out to them that they just participated in helping that person destroy themselves . That has been much like our social policies of enabling addiction we might as well just directly give them cash to buy drugs including alcohol . It was only when I stopped polluting myself that I became a productive member of society , it cracks me up assumptions people make I was once a starry eyed kid not allowed in military due to child good illness that was on grateful dead your thinking hemp and LSD were going to save the world and ” open horrid ions of consciousness ” I was wrong and my very straight laced moral conservative predisessors were right , we need to reward hard work and integrity not the opposite

LeeAnne Milazzo McCarthy well Mr Parks again I see ur post…I sir am a recovering heroun addict with 37 years of acctive addiction…and now has 13 years clean…so if one out of 20 has changed do to help from the community in which they live then u have successfully accomplished a goal…if no help is available the continuation of addiction, homelessness, mental health, physical health problems continue…and for a fact Monroe County spends more than 4 million $ to jail open container and tesspassors than compared to $480,00 on KOTS…even if u add 2 mill to that shelter for conseling, tratment and housing those that do want the help it will be cheaper…just because u know a FEW PEOPLE who might CHOOSE to live like they do does not compare to those that DONT CHOOSE TO…..not eveyryone is a bBUM OR PARASITE….and as far as a parasite deffinition……i thought that would be something that eats within its soul….have a wonderful day

Parks Curtis LeeAnne Milazzo McCarthy mr Parks is not my name just call me parks , I am not saying we shouldn’t help I am saying the ways in which we are implementing so called help is enabling again just participated in helping that person destroy themselves is not helping and consumes resources that could be used on things that really help people , somehow with all this free speech going on here so many seem to miss the point that it is to out VETERANS that have guarded your very right to speak freely that we owe first priority and sadly they are the ones that get jilted the most when we support and enable irresponsible behavior , I applaud your kicking your addiction and i don’t think our current system is even helping 1 in 20

Parks Curtis turning away and not enabling are 2 different things again we are turning away helpline and deserved veterans benefits to support policies that not only are not working but creating greater problems

Stephen Ferrante Parks, for all your talk about jumping to conclusions, let me correct some of the assumptions you made about what I wrote: First off, I am a veteran, having served 33 years, leaving with 4 bulletholes in my body…secondly, I did not deprive anyone of a bed, whenever my bed was needed, I willingly gave it up… further, I have a business called Ameroak Farms, and over the next 18 months, we will be creating more than 1000 jobs for Vets and single Moms who really need the work…

Parks Curtis Just don’t think bed should be taken perhaps you had special arrangement , but didn’t seem right in any event i appreciate your service and I still maintain our resources are being used up irresponsibly making America and key west a worse place not better when the opposite would be true if used wisely , it is very cushy for those not working and hooked on whatever / crooks like cild molester we are paying for housing etc in key west meanwhile :

Donna Carpenter I have some ideas, and I’d be happy to help!! We need to come together and see what we can do to make this situation better. I’d be interested to know how much information other than the number was gathered when the homeless count was done. One thing was clear from yesterday’s “discussion”…the homeless don’t fit into one homogeneous group.

Parks Curtis True Gweko W. Phlocker which makes it even more redicilous how someone made a comment about the rich , all a few paychecks away and white knuckling it our supporting the addictions of many who ate just playing the system we are also just a few bad habits or bad choices away from being homeless

Sloan Bashinsky This is the same Tony Yaniz who stated at the recent homeless summit that he wanted the new homeless shelter to be on Rockland Key? Then, KW Police Chief Donie Lee said, that far away, KW homeless people would not use it. Yaniz has said he wants to help homeless veterans. There are homeless veterans in Key West, who are harassed and even jailed by KW police for drinking in public, sleeping in public, standing or sitting on private property just off public property. I lived on the street in KW. I stayed at FKOC. I have slept in my vehicle in KW. I have stayed at KOTS. Any of you who wish to ask questions about homeless people, homeless issues, ask me. I was the first person new Mayor Craig Cates asked at his victory party at Camille’s in 2009, to be on his Mayor’s Homeless Advisory Committee. That was right after he and his campaign manager thanked me for getting him elected without a runoff. I said sure, I’d be happy to be on his homeless advisory committee. I never heard another word from him. Some time later, Father Steve Braddock, who heads up FKOC, told me he’d had much the same experience with Craig, who surrounded himself with “homeless experts” who didn’t know dingsquat, but told Mayor Cates what he wanted to hear. Instead of spending $20,000 on Robert Marbut from San Antonio, Texas, who promised a great deal more than he could deliver, Mayor Cates could have gotten far better advice from Steve Braddock and/or me, for free. Now it seems Yaniz is starting to act like a homeless expert. Anyone who was a homeless expert would know that KW homeless people would not use a homeless shelter on Rockland Key, and the only way to get them there would be with a city bus running both ways, or most of them wouldn’t use it, and many of them wouldn’t use it anyway because of the distance. Many homeless people won’t use KOTS for a variety of reason, some of which chronic theft, drunk and high homeless residents, contagious disease. Other homeless people do not use KOTS because they cannot cope with being with people in close quarters, they don’t like any regimen, they prefer sleeping outside, they prefer going and coming when they please. During citizen comments at the homeless summit, I said there is no solution to KW’s homeless situation, or to homelessness generally, which will make anyone happy; the only thing that can be done is try to manage it, and that is not easy either. Later in the summit, County Commissioner David Rice said he agreed with me. He is a psychologist and for a number of years ran the Guidance Clinics of the Keys, which offer detox, rehab and counseling services. A number of times I invited Tony Yaniz, Mayor Cates and the other six city commissioners during city commission meetings to spend a week at KOTS, so they can get to know that facility and the population they keep trying to regulate. I make the same invitation to anyone else. At the recent city commission, where Cates and Yaniz went mano mano, I said during citizen comments that the only sane place for the new homeless people is on the Sheriff’s land. That will be safer for homeless people and for everyone else. Some homeless people are truly dangerous, others are insane, others are addicts, and/or. But the city has given the Sheriff no incentive. To the contrary, the city keeps putting homeless addicts into the Sheriff’s jail, and it’s costing him whole lot of money, and sometimes they end up in the hospital, which is costing the hospital a whole lot of money. That needs to stop. KW needs its own drunk tank, which it operates and pays for. Take that burden off the Sheriff, give him incentive to want to have the new shelter on his land. The standing room only citizen audience burst into applause. It really is insane to put the new shelter anywhere else in Key West, including at the Easter Seals building, which is where Mayor Cates wants it to be, even though he got angry at the recent city commission meeting and said he is not promoting any place for the new homeless shelter, even as I heard him push the Easter Seals property at the homeless summit, and he did it during the city commission meeting when he said he and the Sheriff are talking about putting the new senior living facility on the Sheriff’s land. Even though I heard on US 1 Radio tonight of Mayor Cates and the Sheriff talking about putting the new senior living facility on the Sheriff’s land and the new homeless shelter on the Easter Seals property, which property is right next to the posh championship tourist attraction golf course. Just down the street from an assisted living facility, Bayshore Manor, and the Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden, and down the street the other way is an elementary school. Might as well put the new homeless shelter on Truman Waterfront right next to Truman Annex. Or in the parking area of St. Mary Star of the Sea. Or on that scarified land in front of Key Haven. Key West is a destination point for people from different persuasions, including the homeless people, who, if you ask them, just might say what they think of KW’s One Human Family philosophy. As might, if still alive, Charles Eimers, a new resident in Key West, who was suspected of being homeless and was soon surrounded by KW police and was dead lying face down on South Beach, the natural and inevitable consequence of Mayor Cates’ and the City Commission’s and the KW Police Department’s and quite a few KW residents’ attempt to make it as rough as possible on homeless people, so they will leave the area. Where do they go? Why would they leave? It won’t be easier anywhere else they go. Freezing to death in winter doesn’t appeal to them. More homeless people are coming to KW all the time. Half or more of Key West non-homeless residents are immigrants from somewhere else. Uncle Sam’s stupid ruinous wars are creating more homeless people. Uncle Sam’s stupid ruinous economic policies are creating more homeless people. Hear from people who have been there that Key West’s homeless situation is far nicer than in San Francisco and other places. Miami’s homeless situation is run entirely by a US District Court, because Miami tried to use its police run all of Miami’s homeless people out of that area. The ACLU brought that lawsuit. Now Miami has zero control over making homeless policy. the same US District Court has jurisdiction over Key West. If a homeless class action put Key West into that District Court, Key West could lose any say so over anything having to do with its homeless situation. Miami has had no say so since the late 1980?s. The threat of that situation in Miami repeating in Key West is why Key West even has KOTs; why Key West does not use its police to run all homeless people out of the area. That case is called the Pottinger case, named after one of the homeless plaintiffs in the ACLU’s lawsuit against Miami. What Key West has done is expend a huge amount of time, energy and money trying in various ways to get its homeless people out of sight and sound, and to very little effect and satisfaction of most people in Key West. Throwing more time, energy and money at it won’t change it much, if at all. What Key West has done very little of is throwing time, energy and money at trying to help newly homeless people, individuals, women with a child or children, couples with or without children. People who hate being homeless, are terrified, want to get back to having their own place and paying rent and making their own way. This is where KW should focus, I have told Mayor Cates and the City Commission that many times. It was mentioned at the homeless summit. But still almost all the focus is on trying to fix something which cannot be fixed and only barely can be managed, to almost no one’s satisfaction.

Sloan Bashinsky Today in www.thebluepaper.com is the second of three articles about KW’s Frisbee Dave, who is homelless, written by one of his childhood friends, who lives up north. The first article was excellent, today’s I like even better. In the winter and early spring of 2004, Dave’s tent and my tent were adjacent on the Bridle Path. Other homeless campers were strung out along the Bridle Path toward the airport. That’s when I really got to know Dave – before then, I only casually knew him. Then KOTS was built and camping was no longer allowed. There also is interesting homeless camping-related in the fire on Wisteria Island back story article in this blue paper issue.

NOTHING But Bullshit is published in that paper we call the Key West Citizen – they got the dates wrong for the meetings, they call a SOUND ORDINANCE a Noise Ordinance – MUSIC is NOT NOISE!
So what are we ordinancing ?
the mayor lost it, by the way I was There, If the “Paper” wants to feature the main part of the story as Commissioner Anthony J. Yaniz and the current Mayor Craig Cates for Mayor ‘going at it’ over ‘Robert’s Rules of Order’ then so be it, although incorrect – UNFORTUNATELY They missed the story where- 80 or so Residents, Musicians, Bar Owners and City Officials all sat down and had a conversation for 5 hours. we are beginning to see the size of the problem. |
And we will do it again.~By the Way i didnt read that piece of crap. so, this is just what i hear from people that do.

Yaniz tells mayor to ‘man up’: Tension among several commissioner spills over at Old City Hall

keysnews.com

Key West Citizen – Wednesday, March 19, 2014 Citizen Staff Standing toe-to-toe on a corner of the dais at Old City Hall, Mayor…

Sloan Bashinsky Well, if you folks want to read different reporting of that meeting, you can check out my report the next day, and the following day at www.goodmorningkeywest.com. The Citizen report of the noisy sound ordinance part of the meeting was seriously deficient; as was my own reporting, although I did report my own citizen comments. I repeated what I had said at the previous commission meeting; that this ordinance is aimed at people who make egregious noise, the terrorists, the sociopaths, who don’t care a twit for anyone else. I told the many musicians in the audience that it behooves them to become verbal vigilantes and have heart to hearts with musicians and joints making too much noise; a few bad apples ruin all of their reputations. I said I felt the enforcement provisions of the new ordinance will spawn lots of litigation, and I still like just closing down offenders for the rest of the day and night, and let them reopen for business the next day, having lost that much revenue. Maybe they will learn something from that. No lawyers, no arrests, no fines, no courts, no judges. The citizen audience applauded.

Hometown! PAC’s Call for Candidates Event

Dear Members, Prospective Members of Hometown PAC, and all Candidates, Prospective Candidates and Those Merely Testing the Waters:

Please join us on Monday, April 21, 2014, when Key West ‘s Hometown! will present declared and potential candidates for the upcoming elections. The event will be held at Salute Restaurant, Higgs Beach, starting with a social portion at 5:00 p.m. Candidates, declared or potential, will introduce themselves and make short presentations, beginning at 5:30 pm. All candidates are encouraged to come early and bring with them petitions for voters to sign, campaign literature, buttons, T-shirts and other items relating to their campaign. Please bring your own tables for your campaign items.

For those who can not attend the Call for Candidates, FloridaKeys.com will be recoding the event. The event will be streamed live on Hometown PAC’s Youtube channel. You can watch the live event by going to www.hometownkeywest.com and clicking the Youtube icon. The recording will remain on the Youtube channel for those who cannot watch live. The Youtube video will remain available on the same Youtube channel throughout the campaign season.

For a full list of all known candidates and their pictures as well as other campaign information regarding registration and videos of prior Hometown events and, most important, Jenna Stauffer You Tube interviews of the candidates, visit our website to www.hometownkeywest.com. You’ll find direct links to Youtube, all of the other items and much more.

Hometown aims to promote the exchange of political viewpoints and ideas by providing and sponsoring lectures, forums, debates and other political discourse. These actions will allow the voters to more fully consider the merits of the candidates and their proposals (a) to unite and give voice to residents, and (b) to provide leadership and balance for economic growth.

There is no charge to attend, but we hope that you will join the majority of those interested in good government and our local elections and join Hometown in 2014. Membership in HOMETOWN! is on a calendar year basis.

PLEASE JOIN HOMETOWN! IN 2014

Membership

Membership is open to (1) residents or homeowners who work or live in Key West/Monroe County and (2) all those who seek to advance the mission and policy of the Hometown! organization. Active, continuing membership requires a $35 minimum payment each year for an individual or $50 for an individual and spouse or partner. Membership is nonpartisan.

To join, please click on the Hometown logo below or go the Hometown website at www.hometownkeywest.com. Then click on the words JOIN HOMETOWN on the homepage or click on the Membership icon. By doing that, you can use your credit card through PayPal.

This is an especially important election with respect to Key West and Monroe County as is evident in the continuing articles and citizen letters in the local newspapers with respect to a multitude of issues. The following is a list of those races for which there will be 2014 elections and the name of the present Incumbents and their opponents:

Yesterday, I found myself thinking off and on that during the mano mano in this past Tuesday’s city commission meeting, when Mayor Craig Cates told City Commissioner Tony Yaniz to stop talking about the mayor’s race, and file to run for mayor, might leave Tony feeling he has no alternative now but to file. Maybe that’s what he needs to do. It sure would make for an interesting race, perhaps the most interesting mayor’s race, or any race, ever in Key West, maybe even anywhere. Perhaps it would come to be known as Bermuda Triangle West.

Sloan Bashinsky
keysmyhome@hotmail.com

Political advertisement paid for and approved by Sloan Bashinsky, for Mayor of Key West

About Sloan

That's what this website is about, also goodmorningkeywest.com and goodmorningbirmingham.com. If you can't get a publisher to take on your wacky musing, you do it yourself.